I’ll never forget spending the night in the Grand Canyon. Our guide told us that we should be sure to wake up in the middle of the night because we didn’t want to miss out on “the rim effect.” He explained that once the moon set behind the canyon rim, we would be in the darkest place we’d ever been. There would be NO ambient light because we were over a mile into the surface of the earth, but because it was SO dark, the stars would shine brighter and appear closer than they had ever been before. Sure enough? He was right. I woke up in the middle of the night and felt like I’d never seen stars shine so brilliantly before, and I began to cry b/c it has been in the darkest nights of my soul that I have encountered the nearness and the empathy and the light of God in the most palpable ways.
If you are walking through a valley, a canyon, a dark night of the soul, I just want to encourage you to lift your eyes to the hills. You’ll see evidence of light and love and hope breaking into the darkness, and I pray that you’ll be reminded that God cares deeply for you. “The deeper the well, the brighter Thy stars shine.” -Valley of Vision. There’s good reason to hope. Keep hoping. You are never alone. This is the phrase I’m singing at the top of my lungs at the end of Constellations. Life can break your heart some days, and it can feel SO dang lonely, but I’m reminded by the stars each night that light is stronger than the darkness, and that our suffering never gets the final word because death was swallowed up by LIFE. There is love in the darkest night to surround you, and l believe that love will win out in the end of all things, so press on and know that you are loved, even here. You are carried, even here. You are not alone.
I hope these give-aways and song stories have been a gift to you as much as it has been a gift to me to get to share them with you. Let’s keep leaning into the current of Love together, drinking our fill of living water, and pouring that same love and light out into the cups of anyone who’s thirsty. There’s plenty to go around. Bless you for tuning in. You are loved, and no matter what you’re walking through, you are NEVER alone.